Peaceful phantom : the morning after
by Dany le fou
Summary: The aftermath of Miria and Raki's peaceful moment... How will the other warriors react? And what happened to our favourite baldie? Warning : *not* as serious as the prequel


**Disclaimer** : I don't own Claymore

()()()()

You know they say no good deed should go unpunished right? Well, Raki was facing his punishment right now, surrounded by a group of smirking Claymores. Though the biggest reason for their amusement was most likely the sleeping figure clinging to him and blissfully unaware of the attention.

Honestly, he hadn't done anything wrong! Just last night, when the survivors had settled down after the Organization's destruction, Miria had checked on him, they had talked a bit, and one thing led to another…

NOT like that! This was not some half-assed story from some desperate smut-obsessed pervert, where they would have shared a night of passionate sex after getting drunk together. Instead, Miria had simply fallen asleep on his shoulder and since he didn't have the heart to wake her, he had carefully brought her down with him to the ground, laying on his back as comfortably as possible and spent the (thankfully warm) night there.

Which was how the rest of the Ghosts, and a few of the current Claymores, found them.

It didn't help that Miria was still asleep and using him as a pillow. Or the fact that she had slipped her right hand under his shirt in her sleep, resting the appendage directly on his bare chest and leaving a large amount of it exposed to the newcomers' appreciative eyes.

Especially Helen's. Looks like the undisciplined warrior had finally gotten over her shock.

Well, it could have been worse… At least Miria's hand had gone up rather than down… And he was glad they hadn't arrived earlier. The last thing he needed was a group of powerful women wielding ridiculously sharp swords seeing him with a pitched tent.

Hey, he did wake up with a beautiful woman in his arms. Sure Priscilla used to sleep with him, but she began to shrink before his puberty got too advanced, so no sexual undertones ever got the chance to develop.

To his misfortune however, Miria did _not_ have the body of a child. Definitely not. And she was way more endowed than Priscilla, even in her teenage form. More than Clare too for that matter… It was especially obvious when she shifted in her sleep, snuggling her athletic body into his. It was kind of difficult not to think of her larger-than-average chest pressing against his muscular one, or the incredibly cute, nearly inaudible sighs of contentment she let out sometimes, or her right leg which was dangerously close to…

He promptly and ruthlessly stomped that train of thought. Being the accepting guy he was, not even the thought of the warriors' stigmata could sober him if the _problem_ arose. This was partly why he had not dared move when he woke up over an hour ago.

The other reason was that Miria did deserve her rest; besides she looked so damn peaceful that rousing her would be downright criminal.

Of course, this left him alone to face the teasing.

"Aww, how cute!" Cynthia gushed, her usual happy smile a little larger than usual.

"You know, I never pegged Miria as the snuggling kind." Anastasia pondered bemusedly, a twinkle of amusement in her eyes.

Deneve's smirk on the other hand was plainly evident. "'I'll just check on him', yeah right" she quoted Miria's words from last night. "Is there anything you'd like to tell us Raki?" The smirk turned a little evil. "You didn't take advantage of Miria in a vulnerable moment did you?"

Raki would have bolted up but Miria's body was pinning him. "What?" he squawked both in embarrassment and indignation.

Even Dietrich was on him, as the short, serious warrior wagged her finger at him in a mock-scolding motion. "Careful. You wouldn't want to wake her up, right?"

Thankfully, Helen came to his rescue. "Come on Deneve, this is..." She almost said 'this is the guy who used to follow Clare around like a puppy', but she caught herself. "This is Miria we're talking about." she finished.

Hey, Helen may not be the most tactful person, but she knew better than to mention their missing friend. It would ruin the mood. Besides, this was pure gold! She'd gladly give an arm for a device that could take an instant picture of this moment.

'Oh yeah Big Sis… When you wake up, I'm not letting you live that one down.' she thought gleefully, an evil cackle escaping her lips as she made sure to memorize every detail of the scene, from Miria's content face, to her stray hand on Raki's chest, and his hard, washboard abs.

Especially his abs.

Was it getting hot here? And was she the only one _slightly_ envious of Miria at the moment?

Deneve nodded, her smirk turning into a small, gentle smile. "Indeed. This. Is. Miria." There was a bit of disbelief in her voice. "Almost makes me feel bad for punching her."

"She does look pretty serene." Yuma commented wistfully. "In fact I can't remember her ever looking like this."

Next to Cynthia, Tabitha glared at the young man. Well, she glared harder anyway. Ever since she had laid her eyes on the pair, she looked like he had stolen her favorite teddy bear.

And further away, the shrimp twins were staring impassively, though somehow he knew they were glaring at Miria like _she_ had stolen _their_ teddy bear. For a pair of emotionless kids, he could read them pretty well.

The only person he couldn't read was Raftela. The anti-warrior was off to the side, her blank silver eyes staring at them with an almost calculating intensity. She seemed to be waiting for something, though he had no idea what.

"Why are you here anyway?" Raki asked. "Surely it wasn't just to make fun of Miria and I."

"'Miria and I', heh?" Helen repeated with a smirk. "Are you _sure_ you're not telling us something?"

Once again Raki sputtered in embarrassment. This time Anastasia took pity on him. "Well, we wanted to tell her we managed to locate Rubel. But it's no hurry."

"Yep, he's not getting anywhere." Helen chuckled. "And trust me kid, you got it easy."

"What do you mean?"

Cynthia giggled. "Let's just say that Miria is not the only one who likes to snuggle."

()()()()

"HELP ME!" Rubel screamed in agony, the volume unable to wake up his sleeping captor, who only tightened her hold on him even more. What had been a rough cuddling turned into a full-blown bearhug at half-Yoma strength. Not that it mattered as she had broken his spine in her sleep, meaning even if he was released, he would only be able to crawl away.

If he could drag himself with broken arms that is.

How had it come to this? The spy had been silently escaping during the night when he was tackled by surprise before being used as a full-body pillow. The worst thing was that his attacker had been asleep at the time!

Even Audrey didn't know that Rachel was a sleepwalker.

He screamed again, only to be silenced as the muscular warrior forced her tongue in his mouth due to the steamy dream she was having. As he was nearly choked to death, he really wished he had been in the facility with the other higher-ups when Cassandra crushed it.

Around them, the snickering Claymores quickly led the puzzled trainees away before they could witness anything above T-rating.

()()()()

"Alright!" Helen exclaimed, a grin on her face. "I call dibs for next night!"

The assembled warriors plus Raki blinked in confusion. "Dibs? What for?" Raki asked, though he was almost afraid to. He had a bad feeling about this.

"Meh! Who gets to sleep with you of course!" Helen replied cheerfully.

She was met by a chorus of 'What?' from everyone except for Raftela and the sleeping Miria.

"Hey, just look at Miria. It's making me wonder if it's as nice as it seems." Helen explained.

Raki began to sweat as every female gave him some contemplative looks.

"… Second." Surprisingly this came from Deneve, and launched an argument among the assembled women, including the shrimps. Only Tabitha and Raftela didn't say anything.

"You know, it would be proper to let the others know too." Anastasia, always the considerate one, suggested.

"Fine, but once you've chosen, you can't go back on it." Deneve decided. "Gotta prevent this from turning into a fight after all."

Raki sweated even more. "Don't I get a say in this?" he pleaded. Just the night before, he shared a comfortable, friendly moment with Miria, how the hell did it turn into this? Was some higher power playing a joke on him?

"Nope. Sorry kid, that's what you get for being such a nice guy. We are a bunch of emotionally traumatized girls and we need some cuddling." Helen laughed. "What about you Number Ten? Hurry up or you'll go last at this rate."

Raftela's composed voice gave nothing away. "The decided positions are not negotiable, are they?"

"Right, so you'll have to wait." Helen smirked.

"Actually, I won't." Raftela took a step toward Raki and Miria, and to everyone's outrage…

"WHAT!"

"HELL NO!"

"NOT FAIR!"

… laid down and rested her head on Raki's unoccupied left shoulder. As if to rub it in, she closed her eyes and sighed contentedly. "No going back, remember? And by the way… You were wrong. It is even nicer than it seems." The corner of her lips curled up subtly into a victorious smile.

The remaining hybrids stared wide-eyed at the pragmatic warrior and the fast one she had just pulled on them.

"I can't believe it." Cynthia lamented.

"All the while…" Helen wanted to cry.

"It never occurred to us." Dietrich's head slumped.

"Well, it occurred to her!" Deneve commented sourly.

Tabitha on the other hand was beaming. Let them go after the young man, it meant her Captain would be all hers! She just hoped she'd be able to make Miria feel this good… Maybe she should ask Raki for some pointers… or give him a try… you know, just to see…

After the group had left (and they were discussing _pairs_ instead of singles this time), Raki sighed and looked at Miria.

"Alright, they're gone, you can stop faking now."

The scarred woman's silver eyes opened and she glared at Raftela across his chest. The anti-warrior's smile was now obvious. Miria huffed and looked at Raki's face, and he noted the black eye from yesterday was now gone.

Her hand had yet to move from his chest though.

"How did you know?" she asked.

"I felt you tense when Raftela laid down. How long?" he replied.

"When they started bickering. They were probably too upset to notice." She returned her head to its resting place and closed her eyes again.

"Shouldn't you be getting up?"

"If I'm getting teased to death when I go back, I might as well make it worth it." she mumbled. 'Besides I won't be getting my turn again anytime soon.' she thought to herself.

Raki sweatdropped as it was obvious he would be there for a while.

()()()()

**Author note :** Well, this was fun to write, but it feels a bit weird somehow considering how different the first part was. Like I took one of my more serious ideas and made a 180° with it… it definitely wouldn't have fitted the intimate Miria/Raki setting from last time, hence why I chose to put it as a separate fic. If you've read Peaceful Phantom, I hope the change of mood didn't put you off.

But yeah, it was fun… especially when I get to torture Rubel (if you pity him, feel free to trade with him! Rachel needs to snuggle too) or give Raki his silver-eyed harem *laugh*. And while Raftela is far from being my favorite Claymore, she's the only one I could imagine pulling this stunt – the others were just too busy snickering at Miria to catch on the free spot.


End file.
